Thief

# Thief Performance Analysis: Intel Core i5-12400F + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

The combination of an Intel Core i5-12400F with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 delivers a playable but resolution-sensitive experience in Thief, a 2014 stealth title. Across the measured resolutions, the data shows a clear pattern: the GTX 1070 becomes the dominant constraint as resolution climbs, while the i5-12400F's six cores and twelve threads provide ample headroom at lower settings. At 1080p, the combo achieves smooth frame rates across all settings, but 4K Ultra pushes the system to the edge of playability. The benchmark results indicate a pairing that excels at 1080p and 1440p medium-to-high settings, but struggles to maintain fluid motion at 4K, particularly under maximum graphical load.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound scenario that intensifies with each resolution step. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 71.7 at 1920x1080 to 49.2 at 2560x1440, a reduction of approximately 31%, then further to 29.9 at 3840x2160, representing a cumulative 58% decline from the 1080p baseline. This steep scaling curve is characteristic of a system where the GTX 1070's 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus width become increasingly taxed as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

The pattern holds across all settings tiers. Low settings see the most dramatic absolute drop, from 125.9 FPS at 1080p to 88.2 at 1440p and 48.6 at 4K—a 61% reduction from the lowest resolution to the highest. Medium settings follow a similar trajectory: 98.8 FPS at 1080p, 65.2 at 1440p, and 38.9 at 4K. Ultra settings produce the most constrained results, with 71 FPS at 1080p dropping to 45.8 at 1440p and 29.7 at 4K.

The scaling behavior indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this title. The i5-12400F, with its boost clock of 4.40 GHz and 18 MB of shared L3 cache, maintains sufficient throughput to feed the GPU at lower resolutions; the FPS drop between 1080p and 1440p (roughly 30-40% depending on settings) aligns more closely with GPU workload scaling than with CPU bottlenecking. At 4K, the GTX 1070's compute resources—1920 shading units and 6.463 TFLOPS FP32 performance—are clearly overwhelmed, particularly at Ultra settings where the average FPS dips below 30.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Thief, this pairing ranks 1412 out of 1642 total combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier of tested systems. This percentile position reflects the GTX 1070's age and mid-range status rather than any deficiency in the CPU. The i5-12400F itself sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19221, placing it in a tight cluster with the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210, 0.1% delta), Intel Core i5-1335U (19167, 0.3% delta), and AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS (19364, -0.7% delta). The CPU's performance is competitive with these rivals, but the GPU's 51st percentile standing among all GPUs drags the overall combo ranking down.

The GTX 1070's nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark database—the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 (12241, 0.7% delta), GeForce GTX 880M (12490, -1.3% delta), GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER (12504, -1.4% delta), and Tesla K20Xm (12547, -1.7% delta)—all sit within 2% of its average score of 12331. This clustering suggests that the GTX 1070 occupies a well-populated performance tier, and its ranking in Thief is consistent with its overall standing. The combo's low rank in this specific game indicates that Thief's engine, released in 2014, does not particularly favor this hardware combination, likely due to the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions rather than any CPU-side constraint.

GPU Role

The GTX 1070's specifications directly explain the measured performance envelope in Thief. With 8 GB of GDDR5 memory operating at 2002 MHz (8 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, the card delivers 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth—sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but strained at 4K. The GPU's base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz, combined with 1920 shading units, produce 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, which is modest by modern standards but adequate for a 2014 title at lower resolutions.

The memory configuration plays a critical role in the resolution scaling observed. At 4K, the pixel throughput demands on the 64 ROPs and 120 TMUs become severe; the pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s are simply insufficient to maintain high frame rates when the render target quadruples in size. The 4K Ultra result of 29.7 FPS, nearly identical to the 4K High result of 29.9 FPS, suggests that the GPU is saturated regardless of the modest differences between these settings—the card has reached its architectural ceiling in this title at this resolution.

The GPU's 150 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate a card that runs within standard thermal envelopes, but the performance data shows that its Pascal architecture, fabricated on a 16 nm process at TSMC, is the primary bottleneck in this pairing. The i5-12400F, with its 10 nm process and 65 W TDP, provides more than enough computational headroom; the 3DMark scores for the CPU (5895 in 16-thread, 909 in single-thread) demonstrate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded capability that far exceeds what Thief requires.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers consistently playable results across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 125.9 FPS, providing substantial headroom for high-refresh-rate displays. Medium settings average 98.8 FPS, still comfortably above 60 FPS. High settings yield 71.7 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 71 FPS—a minimal 1% difference between these two tiers, indicating that the GPU handles the additional effects without significant penalty at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance impact becomes more pronounced. Low settings maintain a strong 88.2 FPS average, but Medium drops to 65.2 FPS, High falls to 49.2 FPS, and Ultra reaches 45.8 FPS. The gap between Medium and High widens considerably at this resolution, suggesting that the increased pixel count amplifies the cost of higher-quality textures and lighting effects. Only Low and Medium settings maintain averages above 60 FPS at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the GTX 1070's limitations become fully apparent. Low settings average 48.6 FPS, which is playable but not smooth. Medium drops to 38.9 FPS, High falls to 29.9 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 29.7 FPS. The nearly identical results between High and Ultra at 4K indicate that the GPU is fully saturated; additional graphical settings have negligible impact because the hardware is already at its limit. For a 2014 title, these 4K numbers highlight how far the GTX 1070's architecture has been surpassed by newer generations.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Thief?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 as the optimal resolution, with all settings averaging above 71 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low and Medium settings exceed 60 FPS, while 4K results dip below 49 FPS even at Low settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19221, placing it 0.1% above the Intel Core i7-8700K (19210), 0.3% above the Intel Core i5-1335U (19167), and 0.7% above the AMD EPYC 7773X (18979), while being 0.7% below the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS (19364).

Q: Is the GTX 1070 the bottleneck in this system?

A: Yes. The GPU's average benchmark score of 12331 places it at the 51st percentile among all GPUs, and the measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a pattern consistent with GPU saturation, particularly at Ultra settings where 4K FPS (29.7) nearly matches High settings (29.9).

Q: What settings should be used for 1440p gaming?

A: For 2560x1440, Low settings average 88.2 FPS and Medium settings average 65.2 FPS, both above 60 FPS. High (49.2 FPS) and Ultra (45.8 FPS) fall below the 60 FPS threshold, so Medium is the highest playable setting at this resolution.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 1412 out of 1642 total combos in Thief, placing it in the lower-middle tier. This ranking reflects the GPU's age and mid-range performance rather than CPU limitations, as the i5-12400F sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs.

Q: Does the GTX 1070's memory configuration affect 4K performance?

A: The 8 GB GDDR5 memory with 256.3 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for capacity, but the 256-bit bus and 2002 MHz memory clock limit bandwidth at 4K. The steep FPS drop from 1440p to 4K across all settings indicates that memory bandwidth and compute resources are jointly constrained at this resolution.